Utilitarian and Dentonlogical in Criminal Justice Ethics

Running Head : Utilitarian and Deontological in Criminal Justice Ethics

Utilitarian and Deontological in Criminal Justice Ethics

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Institution Name Criminal Justice intends to reduce crime . It could be seen , therefore , to have a utilitarian rationale 'Utility ' would be obvious if a punishment deterred an offender from reoffending or if it discouraged others from offending in the first place . This comment indicates that there are two fundamental ways in which criminal justice can work : either at an individual or at a general level (Cavadino and Dignan 2002 . Criminal justice involves the

punishment showing the offender that her /his action was unwanted because it brought her /him more pain than pleasure so the fear of punishment would avert the individual from repeating the offence . General criminal justice works by showing others who may think a criminal act that they will suffer excruciating consequences if they commit the offence

Before we try to evaluate the effectiveness of criminal justice as a basis for punishment , it would be useful to investigate the relationship between the utilitarian philosophy that underpins justice and punishment . While utilitarian approaches to punishment are not just synonymous with reductivist approaches , recent theories of punishment that focus on crime reduction are obviously linked with the theorizing of the Enlightenment thinkers Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794 ) and Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832 , the classic exponents of utilitarian theory Essentially , the utilitarian argument is that actions are ethical if they are useful , and so punishment can be ethically justified only if the harm and suffering it prevents is greater than the harm it imposes on offenders and unless punishment reduces future crime then it would add to rather than reduce the sum of human suffering

While Beccaria published An Essay on Crimes and Punishments in 1764 he advocated a system of justice and punishment as much as an rationalization of crime and , in similar vein to the British philosopher Bentham , proposed that punishment must be used to achieve some greater good for society - with a reduction in crime being a obvious example of such a good

Beccaria proposed that a graduated system of penalties with the particular punishment suitable to the crime would work as a deterrent Prior to the move to democratic , constitutional governments (as opposed to monarchies ) in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries punishment was often illogical and down to the whims of the dignity and monarchy

Bentham developed what has become known as the 'classicist ' penal code based on the classic ideas of the Enlightenment . He stressed the significance of human reason rather than notions such as the divine right of monarchs as a means of governing . As regards punishment , he argued that this must be rationally based . Bentham saw the criminal as an individual with free choice who could therefore be deterred by the danger of future punishment . He also argued for a strict link between crime and punishment : once a crime was committed it must be punished accordingly , with no room for justifying circumstances to be taken into account...